(670 The Score) Cubs infielder/outfielder Patrick Wisdom is raring to get a new season going after his breakout 2021 campaign, but like everyone associated with the game, he’s been left in limbo as the MLB lockout continues and the first two series of the regular season have been canceled.
As he describes it, Wisdom refreshed his Twitter account every 10 seconds to get updates from national reporters as the MLB owners and players met for labor negotiations for the past nine days. And he didn’t like what he was seeing.
“There’s no Opening Day because the league has not negotiated in good faith,” Wisdom said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Wednesday. “We’re fighting to make it fair on both sides. I understand it’s a business, and I understand both sides need to come together and communicate and negotiate to get something done. We can’t just keep having days where there’s nothing going and we can’t have 43 days before anybody talks. I think that’s another reason why we’re at where we’re at right now. If we would’ve had this week of negotiating 40 days ago, we’d be in a much better spot. But it is what it is now.”
As a 30-year-old late bloomer who was still a rookie in the 2021 season, Wisdom also admitted he’s “conflicted” by games not being held.
“That is fair – yeah, I’m conflicted,” Wisdom said. “Like you said, I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues – so not represented by the union – and I was able to go out and play, we didn’t really have these kinds of conflicts. So now that I’m in it, it’s new to me. And I understand it fully, I understand we we’re doing this and why the two sides need to come together and what they’re arguing about. I get it. But my old self is like, ‘Yeah, but we need to play. I need to play games and earn money and provide for my family and put food on the table.’”
Wisdom was fourth in the National League Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .231 with 28 homers, 61 RBIs and an .823 OPS in 106 games in 2021.